Holiday gift ideas that don't cost much.....

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I thought that perhaps we could help each other using this thread to give suggestions to each other...sharing ideas for low cost gifts or other ways to give of ourselves during this holiday season.

Working in your local soup kitchen or diner that feeds the homeless or less fortunate....



Quote:
something to do that doesn't cost a dime!!!!!

You may have seen this already:
There's a website that's doing good things for people which you can contribute to by simply visiting and clicking a button.
The URL is www.thehungersite.com .
When you go there, you'll see a button to click on in the middle of the page. Each time it's clicked, the sponsors donate to the various causes, in this case, food. And yes it's genuine. I've set up my browser so that each time I open it, it goes directly to the site. I then click on the button and another cup of food is donated. They also donate to other causes, so I then go to the next cause, and do it over.

They have 6 causes, Hunger, Literacy, Child Health, Breast Cancer, Animal care, and Rainforest Presevervation. It takes me about 45 seconds to do all 6, and doesn't cost anything except that 45 seconds.



~bizi~
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12-11-2005, 02:49 AM
~bizi~
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borax snowflakes

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Borax Snowflakes http://www.creativekidsathome.com/ac...l%20Snowflakes

I just did a search and found this recipe. It looks right to me and the pictures of the pipe cleaner shapes are nice to see too.

Here is another one with good diagrams .....

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/cra...stalsnowflake/

~bizi~
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12-11-2005, 03:34 AM
N
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I just put that hunger site on my desktop, so everyday I can click.

I also joined the WSPA animal site.

Thanks for the site info.

N
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what about volunteering to take a neighbors dog for a walk...
baby sitting some ones children to give them a break...
letting people in frount of you when you drive
offering to let someone in frount of you at the check out counter
asking an edlerly person if you could write christmas cards for them...
holding doors open for people behind you.
visiting a nursing home just to go in to say to the residents...
cleaning out your cupboards for canned goods to give to walmart etc.

~bizi~




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I was volunteering for FAIR foundation for animals in risk, a no kill shelter, until my mom got ill.
I will get back to it.
There are many rescue group around here that always welcome help.
I love working with animals.

I would love to go back to school and get certified as a Vet Asst or Vet Tech, that is my real goal.




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Skip Christmas, like "Christmas with the Kranks" were going to do, oh I kill myself, or don't be home. Or make bird cages out of popsicle sticks.
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12-11-2005, 11:24 AM
Bdix30
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I love Christmas With the Kranks! LOL!

This is what I do for my family every year (tradition they all expect and look forward to every year now lol) I go and buy cute calandars and then scan and print pictures of every single person in our family. On everyone's birthday date I paste a picture of the birthday person and the little text bubble stating their memory. (I send an email to everyone asking for a specific memory. This year was "What is your favorite holiday memory?" )

My nephew gave a really good one this year. "I remember when Bobi and I were little Grandma would turn on Christmas music and make me hot chocolate with candy cane in it to stir it up. It made it taste really good." (my oldest nephew and I are only 7 years apart in age)

Anyhoo, its time consuming, but very inexpensive and the family all love it. This will make 9 years I've made them, and everyone has saved every calandar from years before. (and doesn't forget anyone's birthday LOL)
Bobi
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12-11-2005, 11:52 AM
Bdix30
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Forgot to add the kids idea.......

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Oh, heres another inexpensive idea for kids too. I did this last year for all 4 kids and they ALL loved it, boys included....

I went through my closet, my mom's closet, and the local salvation army and picked out some of the loudest, brightest, and most terrifying clothes you have ever seen; hats, gloves, beads, high healed shoes, purses, overalls, boots (basically anything that was 20 sizes to big for both boys and girls) as well as some old halloween costumes, and threw them in a big box I decorated, and called it the dressup box. HOLY COW those kids went crazy!! I thought the girls were going to like it much more then the boys, but they ALL got such a kick out of dressing up and playing.

We would add to it every so often too, and they never got bored with it. I sent it with the girls when they went back with their mom, but have put together another one for the boys this christmas. It doesnt matter how ugly, beat up, or BIG the stuff you put inside the box are, they LOVE dressing up! (except we call it the makebelieve box...the boys would not appriciate playing "dress up" LOL)
Bobi
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12-11-2005, 01:47 PM
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Bobi, your creativity just blows me sometimes. (Your astounding me started with the Halloween parties you put together for the kids at school. You recently reinforced your reputation for … ahem … creativity. I suspect there are a few people who hope it turns into a tradition.

You are building Christmas memories for these kids and having fun on top of it. omg, you are special.

With apologies that this turned out to be another PJ-length post, my two contributions (in two parts):

1 -- For a couple of years in a row, I was in a very bad place, not too long after I divorced, depression was unrelenting, and there weren’t many holiday things I could even acknowledge, never mind get into or do. I buckled to the annual Pollyanna advice that circulates, that it might help to be around some people of my choosing (one I could be myself with vs. relatives and "must invite" people). So I asked some friends over for a buffet (I could make that stuff in increments, not all in one day).

I just couldn’t face decorating, including a tree, so I dragged out the box (artificial tree), propped it in a corner, tossed a string of lights on top of it, called it my "perfunctory attempt at Christmas," and told them why.

It turned out that every one of the 10 people who came were also grappling with depression on one level or another, or temporary visits from really down spots. They absolutely lost it when they saw my "tree," which, it turned out, gave them permission to admit they weren’t in such great places either. They didn’t have to do the "happy face, let's pretend we're having a good time" routine, and everyone kinda relaxed and enjoyed each other. Most had never met before, and some became good friends over time. They talked about it for years, often mentioning that just knowing they weren't alone helped them get through the season.

It’s at least 16 years later (maybe more), and every Christmas time I still get a call from one of them asking if I’m "decorating" my tree again this year.

(continued...)

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12-11-2005, 01:54 PM
PJ*
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Part 2:

2 -- I also did New Year’s Eve calendar-burning parties for a string of years. I had gotten tickets for husband, so he was in Georgia, and the party was a quick-pick-up thing. Four of us – one whose husband had left for another woman, one who had just a terrible year overall, one who was hit by terrible depression this time of the year, and me, still reeling from the aftermath of the bipolar crisis and diagnosis about two years earlier and was now looking at a couple of cancer treatments coming up.

At midnight I started a fire outside, and everything that represented the bad from that year went in. Copies of divorce papers, my journals (I wish I had them today, but they were of more value in the fire at that moment), the entire calendar if the whole year was bad, pages of specific months if that’s what counted. (I’m so thankful I had told the neighbors we were having a "little fire" at midnight; this is the truth – we threw in so much from the year before that the flames went higher than the eaves on the house.)

One year, a pic of a mother-in-law went in, receipt for final payment on an oppressive loan … you get the idea. All this made us feel like there was a finality to the bad stuff, it was over and out of our lives, and the change in the mood as the fire died down was soooo neat. (My T asked if it was okay with me to give this idea to some of her patients each year, and she does.)

These surely aren’t gifts in the traditional sense, but they were big ones to my friends. So, for what they’re worth, my contributions.

Sending hugs for all … hang in there, everybody.

PJ

Bizi,
I have that same website that I click on daily. I have bought things from the animal rescue site in the past too. I wear a purple wrist band for the animal rescue league.

Holidays - ugh I really can't even think about them now, I know that this year will be depressing, well it won't be the first. I dread the holidays right now. Bah humbug....LOL

Nikko